Kyle Beckerman and Eric Avila of TFC fight for possession. (Getty Images.)
This was probably a great match to watch for a casual soccer fan or for a neutral. For supporters of the two clubs, not so much. It was nail-biting time through much of this hard fought 90 minutes. RSL came into the match after a 3 game road swing on which they only picked up one point, despite playing pretty well. Times were more desperate for Toronto FC. They were winless and pointless in their first six matches of the league season, and their nice run to the CONCACAF semi finals was quickly fading into the rear view mirror.
Neutral pundits and commentators on both sides expected a battle, and that's exactly what they got. They could have also predicted one other thing: lax defense from TFC. The Reds paid for that early on as RSL got their first corner of the match in the 7th minute. Javier Morales whipped it in, and it bounced from Jamison Olave to Chris Schuler, and finally fell to Kyle Beckerman. The RSL captain knocked the ball over the line to give the Claret and Cobalt the 1-0 lead.
Credit to TFC though, they responded well. They could have rolled over but instead they attacked and put RSL back on their heels. In the 16th minute Olave brought down Eric Avila in the area and conceded a penalty to TFC. The Reds looked poised to equalize, but captain Torsten Frings slapped his kick wide of the post and the RSL faithful breathed a sigh relief.
Things coasted that way through the rest of the first half, but TFC stood the match on it's head early on in the second half. Eric Avila got the Reds on the board in the 48th minute as he took a pass from Ryan Johnson and managed to get around Olave and beat Nick Rimando to make 1-1. It looked like RSL might have been a little shocked at the energy with which TFC came out. It looked more like the TFC team that played well in CONCACAF.
Offensive production or not, TFC's defense still struggled though, and RSL pulled ahead again in the 57th minute. Alvaro Saborio made a run into the box and collected a cross. Fortunately for RSL, the ball deflected both off of Sabo and TFC's Richard Eckersley and past Kocic into Toronto's goal to make it 2-1 to Real Salt Lake.
Fans at Rio Tinto now figured that normal service had been restored and expected RSL to button things up for the three points. Toronto had other ideas though. They fought back and equalized again, this time in the 76th minute. Sabo lost his mark on TFC's Doneil Henry on a corner kick and the Canadian U-23 international rose up to head in the goal make it 2-2. I looked to my friend in the North end zone and commented, "I think I'm gonna throw up."
However RSL had one last trick up their sleeve, and that trick was named Jonny Steele, the hero of RSL's stoppage time win in Portland. The match went into 4 minutes of stoppage time and TFC looked to have finally locked up their first point of the season. However in the third of the four minutes, Morales sent a ball across the 18 to Kyle Beckerman, who slid down at full stretch and touched the ball back to Steele, waiting just outside the area. The former Wolverhampton youth product rifled the ball into the back of the TFC net to seal the 3-2 win for RSL. The Toronto players collapsed to the pitch in fatigue.
I think TFC outworked RSL through large portions of the match, though I don't think it was by any fault of RSL. The Reds obviously took it up a notch in the second half, and with Salt Lake playing their third game in 8 days, they couldn't quite match it. However, once again they showed their true colors and fought back all the way to the end, picking up a vital three points keeping them right with San Jose at the top of the Western Conference.
The misery continues for Toronto FC. They have now tied the worst start in MLS history at 0-7-0. The only other team to do that was the 1999 Kansas City Wizards. Did they play better? Absolutely. Did they play well enough to earn a result? Probably. Is their defense good enough to compete week in and week out in MLS? No. They need to get the back solidified. This team is close, but the defense has to better.
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